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Our choice: Minding Frankie

Eithne Shortall

October 30 2016, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

Shay Linehan has taken one of Maeve Binchy’s lesser-known novels, published just before the Dublin writer’s death in 2012, and adapted it for the stage. In true Binchy style, there’s a wide cast of characters — played here by just two actors. Stella (Clare Barrett) is pregnant and dying of cancer.

Noel (Steve Blount) is a man for whom everything — from work to contraception — takes second place to drink. When Stella calls Noel to tell the man with whom she had a fling that he’s about to become a single father, it’s time to turn his life around.

However, the social worker assigned to help him has her own agenda. Binchy’s reputation for a sensible kind of sentimentality is honoured by director Peter…